


And For An Old Aunt

by Crowgirl



Series: On the Strength of the Evidence [32]
Category: Grantchester (TV)
Genre: Backstory, Ficlet, Gen, Not Beta Read, Not Canon Compliant, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-18
Updated: 2017-06-04
Packaged: 2018-11-02 00:21:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 615
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10933074
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Crowgirl/pseuds/Crowgirl
Summary: Glenice steps back and rummages in the reticule swinging from her wrist; Leonard thinks she must be the last woman in England to use one.





	1. Chapter 1

‘Your uncle and I are ...are _so_ happy you’re going into the ministry, Leonard.’

Leonard keeps his smile steady as Aunt Glenice envelopes him in elderly silk and dusty perfume. He hugs her back for the sake of the summer she and Uncle Edward had looked after him when his mother was ill. 

Glenice steps back and rummages in the reticule swinging from her wrist; Leonard thinks she must be the last woman in England to use one. It takes her a minute, but she pulls out a volume about as large as her hand -- it must have taken up most of the room in the purse -- bound in very worn red leather. There had once been gold lettering on the front and spine but there are only a few specks left now.

‘Edward and I want you to have... _this.’_ Glenice looks at the book with the kind of adoration elderly women normally reserve for infants, prize petunias, or particularly good specimens of embroidery and makes as if to press it to her lace-covered bosom. She stops herself and smiles at Leonard again and this time he smiles back without having to think about it; when she isn't ‘on her best manners,’ Aunt Glenice really can be a dear woman. 

‘We’ve treasured this since our trip to America before the war,’ she says, holding it out to him. ‘And now we want you to have it.’

Leonard takes the book, hoping he looks suitably impressed, and flips to the title page. ‘Oh, Aunty Glen. You -- really shouldn’t have.’ _New Ideals in Healing._ He riffles the pages and, clearly well-worn, they fall open to the first chapter: **The New Healing Mission of the Church.**

‘Well.’ Glenice sniffs and rummages in her bag again to pull out a hanky which she presses to the very tip of her nose. ‘We’re just -- so proud of you -- but we wanted you to know the church is -- is so much _wider_ than it may seem.’

Leonard nods, flicking through pages again and seeing bold headlines: **A Discontented Church** and **The New Idealism**. ‘You know,’ he offers carefully, ‘when I said that I planned to read theological philosophy, this wasn’t -- quite --’ 

He looks up and sees the knitting of Glenice’s pale blonde eyebrows and the wrinkles around the corners of her eyes and mouth that hadn't been there when he was fifteen and desperate to know that his mother would be all right. ‘Thank you, Aunty.’ On impulse, he steps forward and hugs her again. ‘It’s lovely.’


	2. Chapter 2

Geordie chokes on his tea and Leonard looks up with a face of studied blandness. 'What?'

Sidney keeps silent with an effort, fixing his eyes on the piece of toast he's buttering. An even layer of jam has never been so critical.

Even Mrs Maguire is stunned into temporary silence. Ben has twisted in his chair and is affecting deep interest in the identification of a bird singing in the hedge but Sidney can see his shoulders shaking.

After a moment of spluttering, Geordie manages to swallow and, his voice hoarse from coughing, asks, 'What the-- what are you reading?'

Leonard closes the book on his finger to keep his place and holds the cover. Geordie leans over the table, squinting in the bright sunlight. ' _The Christian Religion as a Healing Power_ ,' he reads out.

'Is that another one from your aunt?' Sidney asks, more confident in his voice.

Leonard nods and leans back, re-opening the book again. 'I keep telling her I don't think they're really relevant but--' He shrugs.

'Not many people wandering around Grantchester suffering from the distraction of unmastered desires,' Sidney agrees just to watch Geordie's face turn purple.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The full quotations is as follows: "So the person who is working with the drain of constant worry, with the sting of remorse, with the distraction of unmastered desires, is torn asunder, and so is used up by a volume of work which if done without waste and friction would refresh in-stead of tire him."

**Author's Note:**

> Title from [_Troilus and Cressida_](http://www.bartleby.com/70/3522.html).
> 
> The book Leonard is given is real and you can read it all for free here: [_New Ideals in Healing._](https://archive.org/details/b29011371) It's a very short book, purporting to be the patient's view of the treatment given in the Emmanuel Movement, a quasi-medical, quasi-religious method of healing a variety of disorders that originated in the 1910s in Boston with Elwood Worcester, reverend of the Emmanuel Church here in Boston, Massachusetts, and Samuel McComb, one of his assistants. The Movement ran on a unique mix of faith healing and medical treatment and was one of the fore-runners of Alcoholics Anonymous. You can read the book Worcester and McComb wrote about their own work here: [_Religion and Medicine: The Moral Control of Nervous Disorders._](https://archive.org/details/religionmedicine00worcuoft)
> 
> I sincerely hope Leonard never goes so far as to get his hands on that one as their description of the nervous, not to mention the homosexual, would probably depress him deeply.


End file.
